It has been recognized that esophageal electrodes are particularly useful in connection with non-invasive esophageal pacing. One such electrode is disclosed for example in co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 930,748, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,611, entitled Improved Esophageal Electrocardiography Electrode.
It has also been recognized that transesophageal electrocardiography can be used for the purpose of studying myocardial ischemia. One such system is disclosed in commonly assigned and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 267,459 entitled Method and Apparatus For Detection of Posterior Ischemia.
It has also been recognized that transesophageal echocardiography can be utilized for the purpose of detecting or evaluating, among other conditions, myocardial ischemia. A particular transesophageal imaging probe is disclosed in U. S. Pat. No. 4,834,102 to Schwarzchild et al. as described in Schwarzchild et al. The transceiver for the imaging probe can be positioned in the esophagus or the stomach of the individual whose heart is being studied.
It would be desirable to be able to combine the pacing capability of esophageal electrodes and the imaging capability of echocardiography probes into a single unit so as to be able to stress the heart and to simultaneously study its characteristics.